Tag: Annecy

A reimagining of the Robinson Crusoe story with Robinson as a doctor on an island where Friday is the only survivor of a refugee ship – plays with the accompaniment of the Bălănescu Ensemble at BFI Southbank on Friday, September 6th 2024 – from the Annecy 2022 Animation Festival in the Official Competition section

The story of Robinson Crusoe, the man shipwrecked on a desert island befriended by a native he calls Friday, is here turned on its head by director Damian (Marona’s Fantastic Tale, 2019) bringing to life a clever script using an inventive mixture of 2D and CG animation techniques. Robinson (voiced by musician Alexander Bălănescu, who composed the music and songs with Ada Milea) is a Westerner, a well-off doctor who spends most of his time lounging around on an island with an i-Pad. He might be a shipwreck survivor, at least metaphorically. He sings about dreaming of shopping when hungry, and after a while we wonder if he’s simply disillusioned with the Western materialist way of life.

He finds himself in the company of Friday (Lucian Ionescu), sole survivor of a refugee boat who treats the doctor as his saviour.… Read the rest

Animation Features Movies

The Glassworker
(Sheesha Gar,
شیشہ گ)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 25 June 2024
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(Sheesha Gar,
شیشہ گ)
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Director – Usman Riaz – 2024 – Pakistan, Spain – 98m

*****

The son of a pacifist glassblower learning his father’s trade falls for the violin-playing daughter of an army colonel in wartime – complex anti-war drama from the 2024 Annecy International Animation Festival in the Contrechamps section, released in Pakistan on Friday, 26th July 2024

If you knew nothing about this animated film beforehand, you’d assume it to be Japanese. Love it or hate it, most animation made in Japan falls within very distinctive, stylistic, visual parameters. According to the press blurb, director Riaz is an admirer of Studio Ghibli directors Miyazaki and Takahata as well as more recent directors Mamoru Hosoda and Satoshi Kon. Visually, the film feels more like a Miyazaki than anything else, and of comparable quality too. Yet it’s also highly original, and Riaz, here directing his first feature after a number of shorts, clearly has his own voice.

It opens with a frame story about youthful glassblower Vincent Oliver (voice: Sacha Dhawan) who, with the help of his father, is preparing for the opening of his debut glassware exhibition. He rereads a letter from a girl which his father (voice: Art Malik) had told him years ago to destroy in their workshop’s furnace.… Read the rest

Tags air raids, aircraft, amphibious, anime, Annecy, Annecy 2024, anti-war, army, artist, bully, classmate, coastal tow, coffins, Colonel, components, composition, conscription, copola, craftsman fathers and sons, cross-country, deal, design, disputed territory, drama, exhibition, experiment, fathers and daughters, firebombing, forbid, friendship, front line, glass, glassblower, glassware, Hayao Miyazaki, home-schooling, invitation, Isao Takahata, Japan, learning a trade, letter, looking up at the sky, Mamoru Hosoda, manufacturing, materials, military wife, mothers and daughters, nationalism, negotiation, pacifism, pacifist, Pakistan, romance. called up, Satoshi Kon, school, sciences, shop, signing up, Spain, specialism, Studio Ghibli, supplies, techniques, top secret, tutored, Usman Riaz, violin, war, war contract, war effort, wartime, weapons of war, workshop. Furnace. Talent

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Diplodocus
(Smok Diplodok)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 June 2024
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(Smok Diplodok)
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Director – Wojtek Wawszczyk – 20234 – Poland – 84m

****

A young diplodocus must save the comic book in which he lives from being erased by the artist who created – from the 2024 Annecy International Animation Festival in the Annecy Presents section

Animation. A bookworm (English voice: Wayne Greyson; Polish voice: Tadeusz Baranowski) appears, a “respected devourer of picture stories”. His function is not exactly that of a Greek chorus, more like a comic interlude who occasionally wanders into the narrative as light relief, to leaven the whole. Not that this likeable romp, is any need of leavening, but it’s a nice touch which nicely sets the tone for the whole piece. It’s about characters in a comic book whose very existence is threatened by the originating artist’s run-in with his commercially driven but artistically clueless lady publisher.

Beyond a vast, bubbling, primeval swamp in a crater, an inventive and adventurous, male diplodocus child (English voice: Julian Wanderer; Polish voice: Mikołaj Wachowski), Diplodocus as the credits calls him, nicks snails off a frog to use as climbing suckers. A butterfly flies past. Diplodocus gets sent to his room by his essentially conservative parents (English voices: Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Marc Thompson; Polish voices: Monica Pikuła, Grzegorz Pawlak) for wanting a life of adventure.… Read the rest

Tags adventure, Agnieska Matysiak, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, animation, Annecy, Annecy 2024, Arcadiusz Jakubik, artist, artwork, audition, beatbox, Bill Timoney, bookworm, Borys Szyc, comedy, comic book, crater, creativity, cute, cute character, deadline, desert wasteland, desk, diplodocus, donkey, drawing, drawing board, erase, eraser, existence, gags, Grzegorz Pawlak, Julian Wanderer, magic, Małgorzata Kożuchowskahumour, Marc Thompson, Mariusz Szczygiel, marketable, Mike Pollock, Mikołaj Wachowski, Monica Pikuła, mouse, multiverse, onions, parents and children, philosopher, Piotr Polak, plagiarise, Poland, prehistory, primeval, publisher, Rachel Butera, science, spaceship, spells, sphinx, sun, swamp, Tadeusz Baranowsk, Tadeusz Baranowski, travel, Wayne Greyson, whiteness, wizard, Wojtek Wawszczyk, X; Strasburger Zona

Animation Features Movies

Robot Dreams

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 October 2023
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Director – Pablo Berger – 2023 – Spain – Cert. PG – 102m

*****

In need of a companion, Dog builds Robot – but then, disaster strikes – charming, dialogue-free 2D animation is out in UK cinemas Friday, 22nd March following its screenings in the 2023 London Film Festival

The 1980s. Brooklyn. The East Village. Bored with endless, cook from frozen macaroni cheese meals from the fridge and channel hopping or playing both parts of computerised table tennis against himself, Dog longs for a companion. To this end, he buys a DIY self-assembly kit from which he builds Robot. For a short period, the pair are inseparable, walking and eating hot dogs together in Central Park, but then disaster strikes after Robot swims in the sea when the pair visit the beach. When it’s time to go home, his battery power is depleted, and he can’t move.

So Dog has to leave incapacitated Robot there. He buys books on robots from the local bookstore to work out how to repair his friend. Alas, on arrival at the beach, he discovers it’s closed since yesterday was the last day of the Summer season. A less than sympathetic cop won’t listen to his entreaties and sends him packing; Dog later returns with bolt cutters and removed the chain and padlock preventing entry, but is apprehended by the unsympathetic policeman before he can rescue Robot.… Read the rest

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Top Ten

Top Ten Movies
(and more)
2023

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 January 2024
1 Comment on Top Ten Movies
(and more)
2023
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Work in progress – subject to change. Because I am still watching movies released in 2023, so it’s always possible that a new title could usurp the number one in due course. Before that, I have a lot more movies still to add / sort.

All films received either a theatrical or an online release in the UK between 01/01/23 and 31/12/23.

This version includes re-releases, but those aren’t numbered. It’s hard to imagine movies improving on Powell and Pressburger’s i know where i’m going or The Red Shoes, Powell’s Peeping Tom or Von Trier’s Melancholia.

In addition to re-releases, this version also includes films seen in festivals which haven’t had any other UK release in 2023.

The star ratings may occasionally differ from the star rating I gave a particular film at the time of review.

Beyond the first 25 numbered titles, there may be numerous errors (missing links to reviews where I wrote one, year of release, country, and maybe more). All this will be fixed in time, but I wanted to get something online in the holidays.

Finally, last year’s list is here.

Top Ten Movies (and more) 2023

Please click on titles to see reviews. (Links yet to be added.)… Read the rest

Tags 2023, Albania, Annecy, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Focus, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, JPF Touring Programme, Kazakhstan, LEAFF, LFF, Lithuania, LKFF, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, PÖFF, Poland, premiere, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tibet, Top Ten Movies, UK, Ukraine, US, world premiere

Animation Features Movies

The First
Slam Dunk

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 13 June 2023
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Slam Dunk
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Director – Takehiko Inoue – 2022 – Japan – Cert. 12a tbc – 124m

*****

A high school basketball team sets out to defeat the seemingly unstoppable league champions – plays Annecy International Animation Festival from Wednesday, June 14th: Edinburgh Film Festival from Wednesday, August 22nd-23rd; out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Wednesday, August 30th

The coastal town of Shohoku. 11-year-old Ryota Miyagi (voice: Miyuri Shimabukuro) lives in the shadow of his 14-year-old, elder brother and school basketball star Sota (voice: Gakuto Kajiwara). One evening, Sota takes his younger sibling out for a practice at the local court, playing as hard as he can to push Ryota, which makes the youngster want to push himself harder still. Sota then alienates Ryota by going on a fishing trip with his peer group rather than respond to Ryota’s demand to extend their practice session. When his elder brother is tragically killed at sea, Ryota must both step into both the role of man of the house and prove himself in the school basketball team.

By the time Ryota is 17 (voice: Shugo Nakamura), he is one of the players on the Shohoku school basketball team which itself faces challenges: specifically, if it is to win the national championships, it must defeat the the seemingly unstoppable reigning champions the Sannoh school basketball club and their star player Masashi Kawata (voice: Mitsuaki Kanuka), Ryota’s opposite number (both wear their team’s no.… Read the rest

Tags animation, anime, Annecy, Annecy 2023, Asami Seto, basketball, bereavement, birthday, birthday cake, cake, champion, competetive, competition, competitive sport, Dolby, Dolby Atmos, family, Gakuto Kajiwara, high school, Ireland's Japanese Film Festival, Ireland's Japanese Film Festival 2024, Japan, Japanese Film Festival Ireland, Japanese Film Festival Ireland 2024, JFF, JFF Ireland, JFF Ireland 2024, Jun Kasama, Katsuhisa Hoki, Kenta Miyake, manga, manga artist, Mie Sonozaki, Misaki Kuno, Mitsuaki Kanuka, MiyuriShimabukuro, mothers and sons, overcranking, school, school basketball, school sports, Shin'ichiro Kamio, Shugo Nakamura, siblings, sport, Subaru Kimura, Takehiko Inoue, team, team sport, underdog, volleyball, Yasukuki Ibara

Animation Features Movies

The Tunnel
To Summer,
The Exit
Of Goodbyes
(Natsu
E No Tunnel,
Sayonara
No Deguchi,
夏へのトンネル、
さよならの出口)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 10 June 2023
No Comments on The Tunnel
To Summer,
The Exit
Of Goodbyes
(Natsu
E No Tunnel,
Sayonara
No Deguchi,
夏へのトンネル、
さよならの出口)
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Director – Tomohisa Taguchi – 2022 – Japan – Cert. – 83m

****

Damaged boy meets damaged girl one summer to discover a tunnel in which time passes much faster and innermost desires are fulfilled – from the 2023 Annecy International Animation Festival in the Official Competition section and out in UK cinemas on Friday, July 14th

A rural railway platform in the rain. Puddles on the platform. The tannoy states that the train is delayed by half an hour because it has collided with a deer. The standing boy explains to the sitting girl who isn’t from around these parts that that often happens in this region and offers her his umbrella. At first, she refuses thinking him a bit of a creep, but then comes round. They swap names and numbers on their phones so that she can return his umbrella. They read each other’s names out loud: she reads Tano Kaoru; he reads Hanashiro Anzu.

Next day, Kaoru (voice: Ouji Suzuka) takes the train to high school where the class is introduced to a new girl: it’s Anzu (voice: Marie Iitoyo). Like her initial coldness towards Kaoru, she ignores various girls attempts to be sociable and has a run in with the girl class bully Kawasaki (voice: Arisa Komiya), punching the latter in the face and causing a nosebleed when Kawasaki “accidentally” drops the old manga in which Anzu is engrossed onto the floor.… Read the rest

Animation Movies Shorts

Flesh Of God
(Carne De Dios)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 4 July 2023
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(Carne De Dios)
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Director – Patricion Plaza – 2022 – Argentina, Mexico, Columbia – France 16+ – 21m

*****

When a travelling monk falls prey to a fever, the folk remedy administered by an old woman causes him to experience bizarre hallucinations – from the 2023 Annecy International Animation Festival in the Official Competition section

(Warning: not suitable for work or for those of a sensitive disposition. Potentially offensive to religious i.e. Christian viewers. Also, spoilers.)

In a prologue, a young girl races through a field of crops but runs into a monk, who squishes the mushrooms she’s carrying in her bag with his foot, feels her face and checks out her teeth before she flees.

Some time later (or perhaps some time earlier), the profusely sweating monk falls off on his donkey beside his walking guide and wakes in a nearby hovel, or it might be a church, tended by an old woman muttering unintelligible rituals as she attempts to heal him. The perpendicular bars of the roof’s sole window form a makeshift cross on which hangs a Christ figure, but when mushrooms resembling the ones trampled at the start are placed in the initially reluctant monk’s mouth, glowing sprites exit his body and enter the Christ figure, which assumes a monstrous aspect and attacks him.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

La Syndicaliste
(lit. The Union Rep,
US: The Sitting Duck)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 30 June 2023
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(lit. The Union Rep,
US: The Sitting Duck)
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Director – Jean-Paul Salomé – 2022 – France – Cert. 15 – 121m

***1/2

After a smart and tough-talking woman union rep in the nuclear power industry is attacked, tied up and raped in her own home, the police suggest she may have staged the attack herself – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 30th

Or, as its opening title states in the English subtitled print shown to press, La Syndicaliste Based On A True Story. That title comes after an opening in 2012 in which police are called to the home of Maureen Kearney (Isabelle Huppert) where her cleaning lady has freed her from a chair to which she was tied before being raped by an intruder. The forensic team are all over the premises, taking away evidence. At the police station, she requests a pad and pencil to write down the details of what happened. The police will later accuse Kearney of fabricating the whole incident herself.

The next half an hour or so is a flashback leading up to the incident. Immediately after the titles, it sets about establishing its heroine as a tireless campaigner for employee rights at French state-owner nuclear power company Areva, standing up for ruthlessly exploited workers in an Hungarian subsidiary and well in with Anne Lauvergeon (Marina Fois), the one female executive in an otherwise male boardroom who despite her reliability and excellent track record is being forced out, with as she later tells Maureen lots of dirty tricks used against her.… Read the rest

Tags Alan J. Pakula, Anne Lauvergeon, Annecy, Areva, attacked, Based On A True Story, board meeting, boardroom, campaigner, Christian Hecq, cleaning lady, clear your name, company, conflicting flashback, conspiracy, conspiracy thriller, corporate, corporate male, court, courtroom drama, dirty tricks, discredit, employee rights, evidence, executive, exploitation, fabrication, flashback, forced entry, forensics, France, Grégory Gadebois, home, house, husbands and wives, industrial relations, industry, institutionalised male violence, intruder, Irish, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Paul Salomé, Lake Annecy, lawyer, Marina Fois, Maureen Kearney, mole, nuclear power, Pierre Deladonchamps, police, police station, political, political thriller, rape, real and imaginary, state-owned, thriller, tied up, trade union, tribunal, union rep, Vesailles, whistleblower, Yvan Attal